Ash disposal system



May 15, 1934. Y 5 BENNETT 1,958,561

ASH DI SPOSAL SYSTEM Filed May 7, 1931- 3 Sheets-Sheet l J5 9/5/6597?? z iasww s a 9 g 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 May 15, 1934- .1. s. BENNETT ASH DISPOSAL SYSTEM Filed May 7. 19:51

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May 15, 193 J. 5. BENNETT ASH DISPOSAL SYSTEM Filed May '7, 1931 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 Patented May 15, 1934 UNITED STATES ASH DISPOSAL SYSTEM Joseph S. Bennett, Merion, Pa., assignor to American Engineering Company, Philadelphia,

Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Application May 7, 1931, Serial No. 535,717

4 Claims.

The principal object of this invention is to provide a novel and improved hydraulic ash removal system adapted primarily for use in connection with automatic stokers of the underfeed type.

Another object is to provide a novel system of ash disposal for stoker fed furnaces in which crusher rolls, to which the ashes are originally fed from the stoker grate, are combined with sluices in such manner as to insure an efiicient and relatively inexpensive removal of the ashes.

Still another object of the invention is to provide an ash removal system less subject to wear than prior corresponding systems, and one which is not dependent for operation upon a relatively great pitch or difference in height between the point of intake and the point of discharge.

The invention further resides in certain novel and advantageous structural features and arrangements hereinafter set forth and illustrated in the attached drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a diagrammatic plan view of a system made in accordance with my invention;

Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic side elevation of the system shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a side elevational view, partially sectioned, of a portion of the system inclusive of a single furnace as though taken on the section line 33, Fi 1;

Fig. 4 is a section on the line 44, Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary sectional view showing details of the construction;

Fig. 6 is a transverse section on the line 66, Fig. 5;

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary plan view illustrating a further detail, and

Fig. 8 is a sectional view similar to that shown in Fig. 4 but illustrating a modification within the scope of the invention.

I have found that material advantages in ash 40 disposal may be realized by employing the principle of the high velocity Water jet in combination with a horizontal sluiceway. Wear on the sluice in the high velocity system forming the subject of my invention, for example, is considerably less than in the corresponding parts of low velocity or gravity systems now generally employed. A further material advantage arises from the fact that whereas the gravity system in order to afford a free flow of material requires a considerable drop between the points of admission and discharge, a system made in accordance with my invention is capable of use with a comparatively small drop, and is, therefore, particularly useful where substantial height differentials are unobtainable.

In Figure 1, I have illustrated a system of ash removal as applied to a bank of four boilers, these boilers being designated respectively 1, 2, 3 and 4. In this system, the boilers 1 and 2 have associated therewith a sluiceway 5, while the boilers 3 and 4 have similarly associated therewith a sluiceway 6, these two sluices joining a main sluice 7 which empties into a suitable sump 8. Each of the branch sluices 5 and 6 is formed as illustrated in Fig. 2 in stepped horizontal sections designated 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13, each of these sections being lower than the section preceding. At the upstream end of each section is a water nozzle 17 arranged as hereinafter set forth to project water at high velocity longitudinally of the respective sections. The main sluice 7 is composed of similarly stepped sections 14, 15 and 16, the latter section entering the sump 8, and at the upstream end of each of these sections is located a water nozzle, also designated 17, similar to those employed in conjunction with the sluices 5 and 6. The Water nozzles 17 are all connected in the present instance with a pipe system 18, this system having associated therewith a motor driven pump 19 whereby water may be forced into the system and through the nozzles at relatively high pressures and velocities.

It will be noted that the sections 13 of the sluices 5 and 6 are oifest at angles approximately 45 from the line of the sluices and join the sluice '7 at approximately this same angle. Where changes of direction are required, as in the present instance, the 45 angle has been found most suitable for the purpose.

As stated above, the system is primarily adapted for use in conjunction with stokers of the underfeed type in which the ashes are discharged from the grate upon crusher rolls 21 mounted in the ash pit 20. In accordance with the present invention, I provide a hopper 22 directly beneath the crusher rolls 21 to receive the ashestherefrom, the bottom of this hopper constituting in effect a part of the sluice 5 or 6, as the case may be. This hopper may be of any construction that may be found desirable, and in Fig. 4, it is shown as composed of a plurality of interconnected cast metal plates. Access doors 23 and 24 are provided in the side of the hopper, the door 23 being immediately above the sluice and the door 24 somewhat higher.

The sluice may be formed, as illustrated in Figs. 5 and 6, of concrete with a chilled cast iron or other semicircular bottom liner 25, this liner being made preferably in sections of a standard length, which are suitably secured in end abutting relation within the sluice. Means is preferably provided for covering the sluice, suitable fiat cover plates 26 being provided in the present instance which are supported on cast iron angle sections 27 set in the concrete, as illustrated. These angle sections 2'7 are so formed as to provide an inside shoulder which brings the upper surface of the cover plates 26 flush with the floor level and also prevents accidental displacement of the cover plates.

As shown in Figs. 5 and 6, the nozzles 17 may advantageously be made an integral part of one of the liner sections 25, the nozzle sections preferably being of the same standard length as the others to permit replacement of any of the regular sections of the liner by a nozzle section. As illustrated in Figs. 5 and 6, the nozzle proper is cast on the under side of the liner and has provision for connecting therewith a water supply pipe 28. As shown in Fig. 5, the nozzle chamber which underlies the liner proper tapers down to two relatively small nozzle openings 29 through which the water is discharged. By further reference to Fig. 5, it will be noted that this construction contemplates a drop in the level of the sluice beyond each nozzle casting, the arrangement being such that the nozzles 29 are very close to the inner surface of the succeeding liner section. By this means, the water is projected in a line parallel with and immediately adjacent to the surface of the liner and ma substantially horizontal direction which reduces turbulence of the fluid to a minimum and in effect forms a film of water moving at high velocity which separates 1 the ash from the liner, thereby reducing abrasive friction to a minimum and rapidly conducting the ash to the sump. This arrangement has been found to provide the most favorable and eflicient operation.

While it is of advantage to form the nozzle as an integral part of the liner section as described above, this is not essential to a proper operation of a system made in accordance with this invention. In Fig. 3, for example, I have illustrated a nozzle attached at the upstream end of the sluice section 9 which is entirely independent of the liners. This nozzle consists of a casting affording a nozzle chamber 30 which terminates at one end in a pair of reduced nozzle openings 31 and which has connected thereto a suitable supply pipe 32. The nozzle 30 is held in position with its forward end in abutment with the end of the first liner section 25, so that the nozzles project the water in a film over the surface of the liner, as set forth above. A suitable clamp 33 secures the nozzle in position, in the present instance. Where a nozzle of this type is used in one of the intermediate positions in the sluiceway, a standard liner section is mounted directly above the nozzle.

Where, as in the sections 13, .a change of direction is required, it is preferred, as illustrated in Fig. 7, to employ a standard 45 elbow section 34, to the projecting end of which may be attached a standard nozzle section 35, as illustrated in Figs. 5 and 6 and described above, this section, of course, being closed off at its outer end by means of a suitable closure plate or wall.

With further reference to Fig. 4, it is preferred to provide the hopper 22 with means for partitioning off the bottom thereof from the sluice during periods when the crusher rolls 21 are inactive. Two means for accomplishing the desired result are illustrated. In one embodiment I provide a pair of gates 36 hinged on the 0ppo site walls of the hopper and adapted when elevated into a horizontal position, as shown in full lines, to effectively close off the upper portion of the hopper from the lower part and from the sluice 6. These gates 36 may be suitably mounted on shafts or trunnions (not shown) which project through the hopper wall and have secured thereto suitable means for elevating the gates or for lowering them into an inoperative depending position, as shown in broken lines, against the sides of the hopper. I may also provide at the extreme bottom of the hopper and through one wall thereof a longitudinal slot or opening immediately adjacent the floor level through which may be slid closure plates 3'? to overlie and shut off the sluice 6. These plates may be withdrawn to provide access to the sluice from the hopper. These closures, when operative, also prevent undesirable accumulations of ashes in the sluices due to leakage past the crusher rolls.

In Fig. 8, I have illustrated a hopper similar to that shown in Fig. 4 but provided with a refractory lining 38 covering the metallic plates of which the hopper is composed. To this form of hopper the same means are applicable for closing off the hopper from the sluice.

In practice, the crusher rolls 21 may be operated periodically or intermittently to pass ashes in finely divided condition from the pits 20 into the hopper 22 and to the sluices 5 and 6. The

ash pits of the boilers are preferably emptied separately in this manner into the sluice. During this period of operation, the pump 19 is operated to project water from the nozzles 1'7 at high velocity in substantially horizontal directions and directly over the inner surfaces of the sluice liners, as described, the high velocity film of water thus produced carrying the ashes rapidly to the sump 8. It will be apparent that relatively large installations are possible without the requirement for material drop between the points of ash intake and ash discharge.

I claim:

1. In a disposal system, a sluice comprising a plurality of liner sections, certain of said sections having nozzles as an integral part thereof, and all of said sections being of the same length and interchangeable one with another.

2. A liner section adapted for mounting in end-abutting relation with other sections to form a continuous lining for sluices-and the like, said section comprising an inner liner portion and an outer nozzle portion, and the said nozzle portion being formed to fit the end of an adjacent sec-- tion.

3. In a sluice, a plurality of sections each comprising a plurality of liner elements arranged end to end, the terminal liner element of each section having a depending part forming a nozzle adapted for discharge into the succeeding liner section. I V

4. In a sluice, a plurality of sections each comprising a plurality of liner elements arranged end to end, the terminal liner element of each section having a depending partforming a nozzle adapted for discharge into the succeeding liner section, and said nozzle part being formed to fit the end of the initial liner element of the succeeding section to form a continuous downwardly stepped sluice.

JOSEPH S. BENNETT. 

